Adaptation, Stylization
by MythGirl Writes
Summary: Serena had become adapted to traveling with other people. What she was absolutely not adapted to was Dawn's bedhead. Sequel to Being a Stylist


Serena learned through many months of traveling with different types of people to be adaptive. For example, Ash and Bonnie always got up late; Clemont usually stayed up a bit late tinkering with his inventions; they would always stop and start again for her and Ash to train for their respective goals. Everyone was a little different, and she was becoming more and more easily adaptable to those differences.

And yet, somehow, she was not prepared for Dawn.

She'd just rolled out of bed- well, sleeping bag- herself to get ready for the day, but Dawn wasn't up yet. At least, she wasn't out of her tent quite yet; maybe she was getting dressed. Either way, Serena started breakfast, nothing fancy, and called out her pokemon for them to stretch. This was her first full night traveling with Dawn, so she wasn't quite sure what to expect from her yet.

From what she'd learned from Contests, Dawn was a really nice girl with a good competitive spirit. They decided to start training and traveling together while they were both still in Hoenn, and Serena had to admit that it was nice to not have to travel alone. Plus, she had learned a lot just from watching Dawn in a couple Contests before; who knew what she would be able to pick up with this much time?

She heard rustling coming from Dawn's tent. "Hey, are you finally awake?" she asked without turning around. She laid out some food for her own pokemon and Dawn's once they came out before taking a bite of her own. "I was worried we'd be here all day!"

"No, I've been up for a while," Dawn responded, and while Serena couldn't see her yet, she could tell from her voice that she must've. Her tone lacked the just-woke-up inflection that Serena's had. "Just attempting to do my hair."

The "attempting" part threw her for a loop. As long as Serena had known Dawn, her hair was always perfectly smooth, barely a hair out of place. She was honestly a bit jealous of that. "What, is there a knot you can't get or-" She cut herself off when she saw Dawn emerge from her tent, still in pajamas and her hair in tangles. It looked to her like every single lock of hair had woven itself into a nest, and a messy one at that. After a moment, she took a deep breath to calm herself. That..._whatever_ was worse than Ash's hair ever was, and Ash's hair was always a complete mess.

"Bed head," Dawn explained with a sheepish smile. She waved around the brush that was in her hand. "Usually it's not this bad. What a thing to see on our first day of traveling together, am I right?"

"Mm." In her mind, Serena was already figuring out exactly how to straighten out all of the knots in Dawn's hair. Seriously, did she sleep through a tornado? "Do you- can I help you get those knots out?"

The sheepish smile turned relieve. "You wouldn't mind? I didn't really want to ask, but I would love the help."

Serena nodded before ducking back into her tent and finding the detangling spray that was in her bag. Her hair was still relatively short, so she didn't need it too often, but it was perfect for situations like this. By having it on hand, she'd always be prepared for situations like this. "Here, sit down. I'll get to work on this."

Dawn did as she was told, sitting in front of Serena and handing her the brush. Serena started to get to work, working the brush carefully through the ends of Dawn's hair first and adding the spray when needed. "You know," Dawn said, "it's a good thing we don't have anywhere to be today. I remember a couple times when I used to travel with some friends that I almost made us late places because of my bed head. To be fair, though, it was also because Ash was sleeping too late, but-"

"Wait, Ash as in Ash Ketchum?" She knew, of course, that Ash had friends across many regions, but what were the chances that she would be traveling with one of them?

"Yeah, you know him?" Dawn's posture straightened a bit, now that she was more interested in what she had started to say. "I traveled with him and our friend Brock through Sinnoh a couple years ago."

Serena nodded, though Dawn couldn't see, as she got a large knot out of one of the sections of her hair. "I don't know Brock, but Ash and a couple of our friends, Clemont and Bonnie, went through Kalos just recently. That's where I came from, actually."

Dawn laughed suddenly. "Wow, so you know about his sleeping-in, too. I feel bad that you had to put up with that."

"It wasn't that big of a deal. I got used to it after the first few times. What really bugged me-" she pulled out another knot- "was his hair. He never combed it, and the one time he let me give him a trim, it was back to a mess the next morning! How does that even happen?"

"Well, just look at my hair! I go to bed with it looking nice and neat and then each morning- poof! A hot mess!" She paused as Serena put in more spray, not wanting to get any in her mouth. "Though I should try braiding it or something. I never really got around to doing that."

The final knot was freed. Serena stepped back a bit, admiring her work. "That would definitely be helpful. I can remind you later if you want." That was why she used to wear her hair in a ponytail when she went to bed; there were always less knots in the morning. "Alright, we're all set here."

Dawn ran a hand through her own hair, feeling how smooth it was without the resistance of knots. "Thanks, Serena!" She pushed herself off of the ground and went back into her tent to get dressed. She emerged quickly, taking a lot less time than doing her hair did. "Hey, that reminds me! I have some pretty funny stories about Ash if you want to hear them later."

A teasing smile settled on Serena's lips. "I've got some for you, too. Count me in."

If Serena had been at the start of her first journey with this, she was certain she would've been a bit more bossy, like she had been with Ash. Then again, he would only listen if she told him firmly; Dawn was the one who came to her for help. Two different people, two different situations. Like she thought before, being able to adapt was imperative to traveling with others, but she had to admit that she liked being able to retain her own style of traveling.

Plus, she loved sharing stories. It looks like she might've chosen the perfect traveling partner for her!

* * *

**So yeah, this is the sequel to Being a Stylist. It was brought to my attention recently by the author 23027 that there was a comment on that story with this prompt in it, and they asked if I would write in. That was about a month ago, and I've had a million other writing projects on my plate, but I found some time to write this recently, so here you go! It felt nice to write Serena's character again, and though I've never written Dawn much, I feel like I wrote her well enough (hopefully).**

**Anyway! Thanks for reading, and have a great day! Don't forget to leave a review if you can, I really appreciate it!**


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